EUROPE was plunged into unprecedented crisis tonight as EU leaders lined up to rip chunks out of each other on the worst day of migrant chaos to date.

European leaders have torn into each other today as the migrant crisis escalated

As tear gas rained down on rioting migrants in Greece and France bickering countries squabbled over who should take the blame for the spiralling crisis which shows no sign of slowing.

Once again the cavernous divisions between different EU countries were laid bare for all to see, with Angela Merkel angrily defending Germany's role in the chaos amid sniping from other member states.

In a day of unprecedented migrant violence thousands of refugees smashed down a border fence between Macedonia and Greece whilst inhabitants of the Calais Jungle camp set fires and hurled rocks at police as they attempted to avoid eviction.

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But the carnage wrought in those riots was matched by the diplomatic damage being done to the EU as member states turned on each other in savage fashion.

Mrs Merkel was on the back foot as she voiced her "despair" at other European nations which fail to share her dream for open door immigration.

Many EU states now deeply resent Germany and blame its leader for unleashing millions of migrants on the continent after she rashly promised all Syrians asylum.

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There were violent scenes across Europe today, with migrants smashing down a fence in Greece

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Europe has been paralysed by division over how to deal with the migrant crisis

Refusing to put a limit on the number of refugees entering her country, she defiantly told state broadcaster ARD: “Sometimes, I also despair. Some things go too slow. There are many conflicting interests in Europe.

“But it is my damn duty to do everything I can so that Europe finds a collective way.“

That stance has put Germany at loggerheads with its close neighbour Austria, which has announced a cap on daily asylum applications in a desperate bid to stop the flow of migrants.

Yesterday the country ratcheted up its attacks on Mrs Merkel to new heights, calling on her to fly migrants directly from Greece to Germany to alleviate the pressure on countries located between the two.

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More than a million migrants flooded into Europe last year

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There were violent scenes in Calais as French police tried to clear the Jungle camp

It is my damn duty to do everything I can so that Europe finds a collective way

Angela Merkel

In a barbed interview defence minister Hans Peter Doskozil told Austria's Oe1 radio: "The German chancellor ... said that formally there is no upper limit in Germany. Then, I would invite her to take the people, who arrive in Greece now and whom she wants to take care of, directly to Germany."

His comments came after Greece hit out at the rest of Europe for abandoning it to cope with tens of thousands of migrants who are trapped at its northern border with Macedonia.

There were violent scenes yesterday as thousands of refugees tried to smash down a border fence and force their way into the tiny country, which they want to travel through on their way to Germany.

Evicted Calais migrants sleep rough in Paris

Hundreds of migrants evicted from the Calais Jungle camp sleep rough in Paris.

Calais camp is dismantled as resident set fires and throw stones at Police

Sauli Niinistö said: “Migration is a serious problem. Europe, Finland, the Western way of thinking and our values have all been challenged by it.'

The migrant crisis continued to unravel after Hungary announced its own plans to build a huge border fence on the frontier with Romania which will effectively seal off northern Europe from the Balkans.

No-nonsense Prime Minister Viktor Orban ignored pleas from Brussels to drop his radical plans to reduce migration, insisting he was acting as a defender of Christian Europe.

He said: "We will teach Brussels, the human traffickers and the migrants that Hungary is sovereign country.

"We cannot solve the demographic problems of the undeniably dwindling and ageing European population with the Muslim world without losing our lifestyle, security and ourselves. Those coming here have no intention of adapting to our lifestyle."

Tomorrow Mrs Merkel will meet Tihomir Oreskovic, the Prime Minister of Hungary's neighbour Croatia, to discuss how the flow of migrants can be reduced.

The tiny eastern European state has been under intense pressure, with thousands of refugees travelling through its lands on the way to Germany and Scandinavia.

Cavernous differences between the priorities of different EU states have opened up in recent days, with none able to agree on how best to tackle the migrant chaos.

Germany's open door asylum policy has been opposed by even its closest ally France, whose faith in the free movement zone has been rocked by the November Paris terror attacks.

Meanwhile Britain is set for an in/out referendum on its membership of the 28-nation bloc, with migration set to be a key issue in the campaigning.

David Cameron spent more than two days in fraught negotiations with BRussels leaders over a deal he believes will help keep Britain in the EU.

But one diplomat summed up the mood in Europe when he said: "Everyone in the room and corridors was rather irritated that here we are dealing with some rather obscure issues of child benefits indexation, while we have real problems in Syria, member states closing borders, major issues we should really be on instead of this."